Category Archives: Christianity

Bible study, Christianity, Writing

“We Are Unworthy Servants”

Leave a comment

I’m now down to the third Bible verse that I use to start my day. [If interested, you can see an overview of this series of posts here, and the first verse here and the second verse here.] Here’s the third verse.

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ [Luke 17:10 NIV]

Pouring over old record books held at the church was the first place to start in my research.

This is at the end of a passage sometimes titled “Sin, Faith, Duty”. Jesus talks about how a person who has a servant will not, after both servant and master have had a busy day, serve the servant. He will expect the servant to continue in his/her duties until the master’s needs are met.

Yet, Jesus says: If all you, as a servant, have done is your duty—if you have not gone beyond your duty and done more than asked—you are an unworthy servant.

This verse struck me several years ago. I think I was still working as an engineer when I found this and knew right away it had to be one of my life verses. I was closing in on retirement and was kind of skating, doing the minimum I had to to keep my job. Then this verse came anew into my life, and I knew I had to change. About a year before retirement my boss gave me a difficult assignment, to assist (and eventually take over for) a design professional who was overwhelmed with problem projects. I dug into it, and for fourteen months had a wild ride bringing those projects into some kind of resolution. I think I did my duty with them, and more than my duty.

That also hit home last July. In June I had finished writing the book for our church’s Centennial, at our pastor’s request. This meant monthly virtual meetings of the committee, and lots of research and writing. The deadline for the book kept getting pushed out as our celebration kept getting delayed due to pandemic and construction. I decided to stick with it as if the deadline was close, finished it about 10 months ahead of schedule, and set back to rest awhile.

But one item nagged at me. The church had 12 known charter members, but supposedly 63 charter members in total, the names of the other 51 never having been properly recorded, or, if recorded, the records were lost. A new pastor came a few years into the church’s life and established record books. Henceforth, members were added and deleted as they joined and left or died. But he also reached back in time and recorded, I’m sure to the best of his ability, the names of everyone who had been a member before he became our pastor. It included some members who had already left. That was a total of about 170 names.

Something inside me said I ought to dig in, do the research, and see if I could determine who those other charter members were. But, I protested to myself, if there are 170 names, and 12 of those are known charter members, that means I have to research about 158 names and try to sort them out as to which to include in the 51 and which to exclude. It was a monumental task and I decided I wouldn’t do it.

July rolled around, and I began proofreading the book at a leisurely pace. I came to the point of there having been 63 charter members, 51 one of them unknown but buried among 158 names, and I had to stop. The verse came to me, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” I had done my duty; the book was done, and done early, leaving plenty of time for editing and proofreading.

But, the thought kept nagging me: if I only did my duty, I was an unworthy servant. I made the decision that I would do the research and see what would result.

Thus, July and August were consumed with research of those 158 names, trying to find a reason to choose 51 of them as charter members. First, I developed five criteria of what would make me include or eliminate someone as a probable charter member. Then I went by family groups, then those not in family groups. Using various internet research sites, I applied the five criteria to each person.

Slowly, everything began to sort out. I was able to make educated judgments and narrow the list of probable charter members down from 158 to around 60. After that, it was just guesswork, but I came up with my list of 51 names and added them to the Centennial book.

But, I didn’t mean for this post to get into the nitty-gritty of the task. I wanted to show how this Bible verse spoke to me and helped guide my behavior. It probably sounds like so much patting myself on the back. I don’t mean to do that. I know there have been plenty of times when I was that unworthy servant, doing only my duty or even less than my duty. But using a real illustration of the principle resulted in the back patting.

I hope this verse will help you as you develop a strategy for completing the work that life has assigned for you to do, or that you have taken on voluntarily. And that the three Bible verses in this series will encourage you. The sun is just breaking the horizon on this cold (28°) spring morning. It is time for me to awaken the dawn!

 

 

Bible study, Christianity, Genealogy, technology woes, Writing

Light and Momentary Troubles, Part 2

Leave a comment

Dateline: 24 March 2022

Not too long ago, I posted about the second of three Bible verses that I try to start each day with. This one, 2 Corinthians 4:17, talks about our troubles on this earth being light and momentary, and will result in an eternal glory that far surpasses the troubles. My focus of that post was that I wasn’t experiencing the glory because I wasn’t using the troubles as a spur to personal growth.

This photo doesn’t really show how my workspace was torn apart from moving stuff to get to devices and cables. Will wait a little to everything back in place. Maybe I’ll even organize it a little.

Wednesday was one of those days, when troubles seemed somewhat more than light. The power company was working in our neighborhood and had alerted us that they would be turning off our power for a couple of hours in the morning, and that they would come by and tell us before they did. The day started out normally. I was at my computer by 7:30 a.m., doing writing and stock trading tasks. It was about 10:00 a.m. before the power company came by and gave us a 10-minute warning.  I closed out of all programs, keeping only a couple of Word documents open, closed the lid on my laptop, and left The Dungeon.

Sure enough, the power soon went off. I took the occasion to make my weekly grocery run to Wal-Mart. Normally a Tuesday task, a long meeting then had caused me to delay a day. I went and did my shopping, for a change finding everything on my list. At the self-checkout, all worked well.

The man at the self-checkout station next to me had some unusual items in his cart: a dozen cans of salt and that many gallon bottles of vinegar. That seemed strange, and I did something I never do: I started a conversation with him, asking him about the oddity of his purchases. Understand: I never do that. If at all possible I go through the store and consider it a good time if I don’t have to talk with anyone.

Although, earlier in this trip, I did talk briefly with a woman shopper in the pharmacy section. A rock and roll song was coming over the loudspeakers and I was humming it. This woman and her adult daughter came in my direction and the woman was singing it. She caught my eye and stopped, embarrassed. Then I started signing it and so she started again. Three seconds later we had passed each other, on with our shopping.

Back to the man and his cart of salt and vinegar. I assumed he was buying for a restaurant, but he said no, it was for his concoction of killing weeds in his rock yard. He told me his formula. Since I have the same problem and have considered hiring a lawn service to spray deadly chemicals on it, I was interested. I learned something from this conversation, this impromptu, hard for me to start but easy to continue conversation.

Back to light and momentary troubles. When I got home, the power was still off. The power company had said two hours, and we weren’t there yet. So I went to the sunroom and read. The temperature was 40° out and the sunroom was getting cold with the space heater not working. I was about done with my daily reading quota in this particular book when the power came on, just shy of three hours since it had gone off. The power company had said it might take as long as that if they ran into any problems.

All was good. The trouble of no power was indeed light and momentary, and I thought I had redeemed the time well. A brief lunch, and downstairs to The Dungeon to resume my activities, only to learn…no internet. No problem. I rebooted the modem; still no internet. I rebooted the router; still no internet. I waited then repeated those two steps. Still no internet. I finally found a number for our internet provider. They did a remote reset of the modem; still no internet. I got on a text chat with a rep of their company. He did various things. I tried to explain the situation. Two hours of texting; still no internet.

I took note of the steady light showing on the modem and the all-lights-flashing status of the router, assumed a router failure, and texted a friend who is an IT guy in his job and arranged for an evening call. I wondered if the router experienced a power failure when it came back on. I also considered that the internet provider had sent an e-mail a week before, saying they had increased speeds and I would have to reboot the modem to take advantage of that. I hadn’t done it yet, but the power shutdown was actually a forced reboot. I now have 866 mbps speed—but no internet. Could it be that this old router was incompatible with the higher speed?

This trouble was turning out to be worse than light and not all that momentary. I found other things to do, mainly going through an old genealogy research notebook and getting rid of a bunch of stuff I no longer need. I read the instructions for the air fryer we’ve had for three years but never used and planned to cook some veggies in it. Supper came and went, and I had the call with my friend. We talked through the internet problem. He agreed with me that it sounded as if the router had gone bad. Based on our set-up, he talked me through a work-around, and poof! we had internet.

From there the conversation rolled into other areas to fill the hour. Technology, internet, CATV vs streaming, cost increases, even a little into politics. We ended when he was expecting another call to come in. It was a good hour.

So how would I describe these technology troubles. Light? Momentary? In hindsight I would guess so, though it didn’t seem like it at the time. But since the time was redeemed, and redeemed well, I would have to say they were indeed light and momentary, and that God used them toward the goal of eternal glory.

book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: George Mueller

2 Comments
A short bio, but full of information, and well-written.

In our quest to reduce clutter and dis-accumulate years of accumulation, Lynda and I pulled a few books from obscure shelves in the basement family room, and will read them next. These are all “non-keepers”, books we will discard. One of these books was George Mueller. Not too long ago we read that aloud in the evenings.

I’ve known about George Mueller and his life of faith for a long time. I’ve read about him in various books and articles. I included him in a chapter of Acts Of Faith, my book about Bible people and Christians who had special faith experiences. But I had never read a biography of him.

This was a short book, possibly geared towards teens, though actually a good read for adults. It covered Mueller’s growing up in Germany, his wild youth period, his conversion, and his growth as a baby Christian. He gave up a prospective marriage to a woman who did not appreciate his desire to be a missionary.

He made contact with a missionary society that wanted him to work among the Jewish people in England. He went there, but it didn’t work out. He became co-pastor of a church. Before long, he started a Bible distribution ministry. Not long after that, he took notice of orphans in Bristol and their plight in the workhouses. He decided to develop orphanages, which he had seen in Germany but were a new concept in England. Over the years, he developed multiple orphanages, first in the heart of Bristol, then on the outskirts.

This includes a chapter, or rather part of a chapter, about George Mueller.

The act of faith? He did all this without ever soliciting donations. Not for renting property. Not for staffing the orphanages. Not for provisioning them. Not for buying property and building multiple orphanages on it. He prayed for the needs and trusted God to supply.

The book concentrated on the orphanage years. There were times when they had nothing for breakfast, and a bread truck broke down in front of the orphanage. There were times when a 5 pound bill was due, and an envelope came in the morning mail from someone they didn’t know. Mueller had faith when he needed a shilling and was trustworthy with it. God then gave him faith for tens of thousands of pounds and trustworthiness with that.

The book was an easy read. Not terribly long, but long enough so that by the end I felt like I understood Mueller’s life fairly well. Now I’m sure that, in a short book, much was left out. I want to read a fuller biography of this.

I highly recommend this book, which I give 5-stars. But this little paperback is long out of print. If you can’t find this, grab any bio of Mueller and dig in.

This book is not a keeper. However, we might give it to our grandchildren to read. It’s quite readable at that age.

 

Bible study, Christianity, The Forest Throne, Writing

Into a Writing Rhythm

Leave a comment

Dateline: 17 March 2022

Moving this 7 foot high woodpile about 60 feet downhill might interrupt my writing rhythm.

I haven’t looked back to see what my writing goals for March are, but I know I’ve been busy writing. I’m into a rhythm of sorts. I need to be since I’m working on two projects at once, while still waiting on two others to truly finish and drop off the radar.

The two waiting to be finished are the church Centennial book and my MG/YA novel There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. The former is done  and sent to the printer. At least the insides are. The cover has lagged due to the designer’s busyness. She sent it to me on Tuesday. I immediately shot it to our pastor and committee chair for approval. Both wanted tweaks or changes, one involving a new photo. That photo arrived in my inbox today. I sent it on, and the cover designer says I should have the revised cover tomorrow. Once I send it on to the printer, that project will be truly done.

The other project is also done—sort of. I’m waiting on five beta readers to give me feedback, four of them in the target age group. I’ve given nudges but hear nothing from them. The cover is under preparation by a different designer. I think, once that is done, I will publish it with or without the feedback from the five. If they give me good suggestions for substantive changes, I can always make the changes and republish the book. Meanwhile, I’m giving my critique group a chapter every two weeks and getting good feedback. Alas, as adult writers, they aren’t in the target demographic. Both of these projects are taking very little of my time.

My Bible commentaries are out, resting one on another on the kitchen table, and likely to stay there for a couple of months. I see blank paper to write on, but what did I do with my notes?

Now, as for current projects, they are two Bible studies that form a pair. First, some background. Last year, Feb-Apr, I taught a Bible study on the Last Supper, 13 weeks I think it was. It was Part 3 of a larger study, A Walk Through Holy Week. We are studying it in our Life Group, one part a year, based on the harmony of the gospels I wrote. I realized that the entire study would make a good series of books. I didn’t do anything with Parts 1 and 2, but Part 3 seemed especially suitable for a Bible study book.

Alas, when that study was over, I was fully involved in the Centennial book, and when I had it mostly finished by June (with a research supplement not done till Aug), I moved straight into the time travel book because the iron was hot and I wanted to get it done. Meanwhile, I preserved my teaching notes, some of which were handwritten and some typed. Whenever my schedule freed up, I would be ready to write it.

That happened around mid-January this year. I gathered my notes, merged and organized them, then created the book file. I labored at it for a month. Yes, labored, for I found it very difficult to write. My plan was to have one chapter for each week’s lesson. Chapters would be organized into seven sections, making for a reading a day should the reader want to proceed that way. I was able to make some headway on it, starting the seven readings for Chapter 1 and completing some of them. I got some “days” done, others not. By around March 3rd, I had perhaps 12,000 words of a book that I think will be 50-60,000. Not great progress, but some.

Then a dilemma hit me. On Sunday, March 6, we were to start Part 4 of the Holy Week study. I immediately thought I couldn’t work on both studies. Teaching the new one would consume so much time, and cover different material, that writing Part 3 while teaching Part 4 would be difficult. But the thought came that maybe I should just write the new one and lay Part 3 aside. That way, I could write the chapters (again, planning for seven readings in each chapter) as I was teaching it. The material would be fresh, and hopefully the writing would go fast as well.

I taught the first lesson of Part 4 on March 6. The day before, Saturday, I did an intensive study for it. Coming home from church on Sunday, I went to my computer and began writing the new study. As I hoped, it was easier. I was able to incorporate class discussion and thoughts not in my notes that came to me as I was teaching while all was fresh on my mind. Sunday, I wrote one complete reading and part of another. I also organized the chapters and readings. Monday, I did two more readings, Tuesday two more, and Wednesday, two more, completing the chapter. Yay!

That left me Thursday and Friday to return to the Part 3 book and see what I could accomplish. What I found was I really needed to re-study the material just as if I was going to teach it anew. I did that on Thursday, and on Friday I wrote two days of readings. My writing time on Saturday had to go to study for the next lesson in Part 4.

So it seemed to me that this was a viable rhythm. Saturday: study to teach a lesson in Part 4. Sunday, teach the lesson and work on writing the chapter in Part 4. Monday-Tuesday write the Part 4 chapter, hoping to finish by Tuesday evening. If I couldn’t, continue with Part 4 writing on Wednesday. When that was done, shift to Part 3, hoping to study a chapter and write it on Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.

It worked out like that this week. I completed the second chapter of Part 4 on Wednesday, early enough to give me some time to shift to writing Part 3. As of the time of this writing, I should finish tomorrow (today when you read this) the most difficult chapter to write in Part 3. Then, it’s on to Chapter 3 of Part 4 and another chapter in Part 3. I hope this is making sense.

Part 4 finishes on Easter Sunday. The week after Easter I have a medical procedure scheduled that will prevent me from writing a whole lot. I hope to finish Part 4 by the end of April—the first draft, that is. I’ll be very surprised if I am even half-way through with Part 3 by then, but maybe I will be.

As of yet, I have no publishing schedule for either of these. I don’t know if I’ll publish Part 4 when done, and Part 3 a couple of months later, or if I’ll withhold Part 4 until Part 3 is done and publish them together, or maybe a month apart. Once I know, I’ll let you all know here.

book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: Like a Mighty Wind

Leave a comment
God moved in Timor, and Mel Tari was part of the revival there. A good read, this 1971 book.

In the quest to reduce our possessions, of which books are the ones we have most of and need to reduce, the wife and I went to the shelves in the basement family room, which is really part of an open space that includes The Dungeon, and grabbed a number of books to bring upstairs and read aloud in the evenings. We now have a stack of six or eight books to read. Except we finished two of them.

One was Like A Mighty Wind by Mel Tari, Cliff Dudley being his collaborator. We bought this used hardback some years ago. At least, I assume we bought it. I don’t remember the many book purchases we made. This could have been given to us. No matter. It’s been on that shelf for a long time. We finally got to it. Originally published in 1971, our copy is a tenth printing from August 1972. Ten printings in one year. Obviously, this book struck a nerve when first published.

Mel Tari was an Indonesian native from the island of Timor. The Foreword begins:

Four nights before the nearly successful Communist coup in Indonesia in 1965, God sovereignly began pouring out His Spirit in a small town on the little-known island of Timor. He alerted the Christians to pray, and the country was remarkably spared.

A revival broke out in Timor right afterward and Mel Tari, at the time only 18, was saved and empowered to preach the gospel. The book tells his story. How he became a preacher on Timor. How God did miracle after miracle, things like helping the evangelistic team find their way in a roadless, pathless jungle to a village they had heard of but never been there. How doors opened and closed, and God’s work progressed. How he learned as he went along. It’s a fascinating story.

Despite the above quote, the book isn’t about politics, but about Mel’s journey. He turned down a scholarship to a university in Russia, and instead came to the USA for study. Expecting to come to a Christian country. Instead, he found sin all over the country. He was quite disappointed.

The story is, as I said, fascinating. Tari sees miracle after miracle. He grew in his faith as he took the Bible at its word. He prayed much. He preached. He helped many people on his native Timor.

The book gives Tari’s journey for the first ten or so years during and after the revival on Timor. It’s a story well worth reading. As I did a little research while putting this post together, I see that controversy now swirls around Tari, who is now a US citizen. I wasn’t able to make sense of it all, but I take it he is considered something of a fraudster-preacher. Could be; I would have to do more research to know for sure.  It’s possible that the spiritual condition he experienced in his early years didn’t carry through to his later years.

I give this book 3-stars. It has some typos that distract. Tari also gets into a couple of controversial doctrinal issues, which slightly lessened my enjoyment of it. Should you read it, given Tari’s current reputation in the USA? If you come across it (and it’s available where used books are sold), yes. As I said, whatever his faults now, this book is of a time many decades ago, when the moving of God in Tari’s life was new and fresh.

But, it won’t go back on the basement shelf. Into the sale/donation pile it will go later today.

 

Bible study, Christianity, miscellaneous

“Our Light and Momentary Troubles”

Leave a comment

The second Bible verse (see here for my discussion of the three verses and here for the first verse) I try to say each morning has been with me a long time, probably twenty years. I’ve used it in my e-mail signature at least since 2005. I think I first took note of it in 1993-94, when coaching our church’s teen Bible quizzing team. It is 2nd Corinthians 4:17.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all.

I more or less remember the day I found this verse. It hit me hard. Whatever our troubles are on this earth—and they might be many—they are nothing in relationship to heaven. Persevering through earthly troubles will result in heavenly glory for us.

The load about to go to Salvation Army. Glad to have this go; sad to think this a small amount of what we need to get rid of. A light and momentary trouble.

At some point I began saying this every morning. That is, except when I got up and forgot, which happens occasionally. I know that the day will have troubles. That’s a sign that I’m living, interacting with people. Quoting it helps me to keep those troubles in perspective.

However, recently I realized I wasn’t getting the full benefit of this verse. Sure, seeing my troubles in an eternal perspective was important, and beneficial, but the verse says something more. Those troubles are supposed to be achieving for me an eternal glory that’s much greater than the troubles. But were they?

I had a couple of incidents of troubles this week, and they almost slipped by without my realizing the full benefit of them. On Monday, after many false starts and delays, I loaded up the van with remnants of the garage sale we had over a year ago to take them to a thrift store. We decided that this load would go to the Salvation Army donation center about 20 miles from our house. We have a closer thrift store where we normally take donations, but decided this time to help out the Salvation Army.

A couple of months ago I had called them and learned their donation hours were 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. I had the load ready around 1:30, thus figuring I was safe. But to be sure, I called the donation center. Alas, their phone was busy. Busy on the first call, the second call, the third call. For 15 minutes their line was busy. I should have just got in the van and made the trip. Finally, they answered the phone, and I learned that their closing time had changed to 2:30 p.m. It was about 10 minutes to 2 p.m., and I had 20 miles to drive.

What to do? Knowing I had a busy day planned for Tuesday, I quickly hopped in the van and left. The recently opened Bella Vista bypass allowed for quick travel, and I reached the mall they were in (I’d not been to S.A. since they moved to this declining mall). I drove around it and no Salvation Army. I called, knowing I hadn’t been able to reach them easily earlier. But they answered right away, told me where they were in relation to the mall building and said drive around back. Although, the woman answering said “go past the mall….” I asked her east-bound or west-bound, but she didn’t know her east from west. A follow-up question gave me what I needed.

I got to the back at 2:22 pm, and the door was closed, the sign in place saying they were closed for donations. I knocked and no one came. I pulled the door open and no one was in sight. I called out and no one answered. I was hot. I drove around to the front and went in, ready to give them a piece of my mind. They assured me they were open for donations, to drive around the back again, and they would meet me. I got back in the van, still hot, when my verse came to mind. I was reminded that this trouble was, in fact, light and momentary.

But was it achieving me an eternal glory that outweighed the trouble? Not the way I was going. I had to change my attitude. I realized the worst that could happen was I might have missed delivering to this store and would have to drive to the other. The cost would have been just 10 miles of extra driving—not an inconsiderable cost these days. I got around the back. Three workers met me and they made short work unloading my full van while we had pleasant conversation. It was 2:30 p.m.

The other trouble came on Tuesday. After breakfast, when I was going to start my writing day, I remembered I really needed to prepare the income tax form for our partnership. Partnership tax returns are due March 15. Oh, such a problem.

All the information needed to complete the partnership taxes was on spreadsheets. I opened these. One was the business records, the other was the tax computations. But, the two spreadsheets didn’t quite match. I had some manipulation to do before I could dump the business records into the tax spreadsheet. Is this making sense?

Alas, I had much trouble with it. I had two spreadsheets open, and two worksheets in one spreadsheet. I kept making changes to the wrong file, or the wrong tab in the file, and had to un-do a lot and start over. I couldn’t remember how I did it last year. Finally, in frustration I left The Dungeon, went upstairs and got another cup of coffee. I had wasted over an hour.

As I sipped coffee back in The Dungeon, I realized that this trouble was light and momentary. But, my frustration and anger wasn’t achieving for me an eternal glory that outweighed the trouble. That would only happen if I calmed down, figured out how to do this a step at a time. It meant I would have to give up completely my morning writing session, which would put me behind my week’s writing goal. “If that’s what it takes,” I decided. Two hours later, and the problem was solved. The tax spreadsheet had all the information from the business accounting spreadsheet. Filling out the actual tax forms would be a two-hour task on Wednesday, and the deadline would be met.

Light and momentary troubles. I’ve recognized that for close to 30 years. But I haven’t always achieved the eternal glory part. This week, I think I took a couple of steps in the right direction.

book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: Organic Disciples

Leave a comment
Except for running a little long in places, this was an excellent book.

Our church recently did an all-church study of the book Organic Disciples. Our pastor preached on the concepts in the book, and all adult Sunday school classes (a.k.a. Life Groups) studied it.

What exactly are organic disciples, you ask? Well, in the food industry, organic means “natural”. In terms of discipleship, it would mean we should naturally grow/improve as disciples of Jesus.

The idea of organic disciples grew out or organic outreach. This is a ministry of Kevin and Sherry Harney, pastors of a large church in California. Organic outreach means natural outreach. Your life should be structured in such a way that reaching people with the gospel happens naturally. It is not forced, not a trial or burden, but a joy that comes from everyday living. The Harneys have a series of books, church resources, and small group resources designed to help with the concept of organic outreach. Organic Disciples is one of those resources.

The book focuses on six spiritual markers that the disciple can use to measure their progress on the road to being more Christ-like, which is the definition of a disciple. Such things as Bible engagement, prayer, worship, generosity, etc. are what marks a disciple. The book has chapters based on these concepts. Examples from the authors’ lives. Suggestions on how to make these items natural in your life.

The book I found to be useful and well-written. I found nothing to disagree with. The book stayed clear of politics and controversial subject. At times the discussion ran a little long.  I felt that several chapters were repetitive, or went into too much detail. But, overall, a good book. I give it 4-stars.

But as to keeping it? Alas, no. If I didn’t have a couple of thousand  other books to read, I might. But the likelihood of my ever reading it again is small. So to the donation piles it goes. Hopefully today it will go to one of the area thrift stores.

 

Bible study, Christianity, Daddy Daughter Day

“I Will Awaken The Dawn”

2 Comments

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had three Bible verses that I tried to start each day with. I also confessed that I wasn’t always that faithful with saying these verses. I’m getting better at it, however. I started this about two years ago, though two of those three verses have been special to me for longer than that.

The first of these verses comes from the Psalms. I find it in two places there: Psalm 57:8 and Psalm 108:2.

I will awaken the dawn.

Actually, that’s not the full verse. I should quote the full verse.

Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.

While I have probably read this more than once, it first grabbed me when we were doing a study of Psalm 119 maybe four years ago. For some reason this verse in Psalm 108 must have been cross-referenced to something in Psalm 119.

This, as I say, grabbed at me. What did it mean exactly? To try to find out, I checked other translations (the above quotes are from the NIV). I found they were surprisingly the same. The New Living Translation has Psalm 57:8 as, “Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song.”

What did it mean? I pondered it for a while, internalizing it, and concluded that the psalmist woke in the morning excited about the day that was before him. He couldn’t wait for the sun to come up so that he could be about living another day joyously in service to God. So he wrote, “I will awaken the dawn.” I will call upon the day to start so that I can get to my daily chores, my work, my career, or whatever it is he had to do.

That struck me as a good way to start my days, to be anxious for what God had in store for me today, and what the world has for me. C’mon day, let’s get going. C’mon sun, I need your light so that I can be out and about, meeting people, serving God, serving mankind.

First, I had to think, is this how I really feel? Am I excited to have another day to live? Thankful, of course. But when nature calls early in the morning, and I swing my feet off the bed to the floor, and I anxious for the day, so anxious that I say, “I will awaken the dawn”? I decided yes, yes I am excited to be living another day.

What about that Saturday in late February, when I spent three hours chopping ice in the driveway and shoveling it off so that I would be able to get to church on Sunday and teach Life Group? My back was tired, my hip was tired, my mind was tired. I woke up that Sunday with many more aches and pains than usual. Yet I was able to say, “I will awaken the dawn,” get up, and get to my normal Lord’s day activities.

What about income tax season? I have a love-hate relationship with income taxes. I enjoy the challenge of doing them myself. Yet, it’s a lot of work and often frustrating. In early March, when I work on the partnership taxes, and then in early April when I do our personal taxes, saying, “I will awaken the dawn” isn’t all that easy. Still, I say it anyway, realizing I have another challenge to tackle and overcome.

Then there’s the daily “grind” of writing. Yes, it is a grind. I can’t say it any other way. Sometimes it’s almost a drudgery. Yet, again, there’s that challenge waiting me in the morning, to get my coffee, walk down the stairs to The Dungeon, have my time of devotions and prayer, check overnight e-mails and social media, then get to whatever book I’m working on. While it severely cuts into my retirement idleness, I can joyously say, “I will awaken the dawn” as I open a book file and begin typing.

I actually wrote a poem that kind of sums up, or maybe expands upon, what this verse is saying. It’s the second poem in my book Daddy-Daughter Day.

That says kind of the same thing, I think. Written in 2005 (or 2006), it speaks of wanting the day to occur and being excited about the adventures that await you.

So, what happens on a day when I wake and just don’t feel ready to claim the day as my own? When I don’t particularly want to awaken the dawn? Yes, I have days like that. I still say the verse. And the verse seems to get hold of me, once again. My attitude quickly changes. And I get on with the adventures that God has for me today.

Bible study, Christianity, goals, self-publishing

February Progress, March Goals

Leave a comment

Last day of the month, a short month. Time to see how I did on reaching my monthly goals, and to set some goals for next month.

It has taken over a year of work to get to this point, but finally we are within a couple of weeks of going to print. I said this last month, but it seems closer now.

First, the progress on goals I set back on January 31.

  • Make any edits to the church Centennial book and deliver it to the printer. I guess that means we will have to make a decision on the printer, but that decision is actually almost made. This goal depends a bit on the cover designer, but it’s a fairly simple cover so I don’t see this as a problem. I sort of achieved this goal. I made all the final edits, and am now just waiting on the cover creator. I received one new photo from the descendant of a former pastor. While waiting on the cover, I’ll see if I can work that in.
  • Related to that, though not necessarily writing, finish pulling my research notes together into a format and organization that will make the job of a future researcher easier. I assume someone, in 25 or 50 years, will do something similar to me at a future milestone anniversary. Nope, didn’t work on this at all. Once I picked up some of my notes and tried to put them in some kind of order, but gave it up. It takes a different mindset to do this kind of task, and I’m afraid I never had that mindset this month. I’ll add it to next month.
  • Make any edits necessary to There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. I want to get a few more chapters through my critique group, and of course I’m waiting on the beta readers and then the cover artist. Assuming that all comes together, I’m looking at publishing either in March or April. This project continues to move forward. I’m waiting on two key beta readers to get back with me, which I hope will be this week. I was supposed to have met with the cover artist last week, but two days of snowstorms got in the way of that. While waiting, I’m going through the book one more time, looked at suggestions the critique group made, and seeing if I can make other, similar changes. I would say that March is unlikely for publishing at this stage. April is still possible.
  • Complete significant work on The Last Supper Bible study. I’ve had some trouble coming up with the right format; or rather, I’ve had trouble seeing how the format I came up with a year ago will work. I have to get some words on paper and see how well it comes together. As such, this goal is a bit unfocused. Just as this goal was unfocused, so was my work. I did accomplish a few things. First, I got all my files together. I moved words already written around so that they were in the right place. I temporarily gave up on Chapter 1, which was giving me much trouble, and moved to Chapter 2, which I all but finished. While I wish I was further along, I feel good about where I am. I’ll have to get a little way into Chapter 3 before I can say, for certain, that this is a viable project.
  • As always, attend writing group meetings, both in person and on-line. That will likely be five meetings, three of which will be in person. Well, between pandemic and travel and snow, some meetings were cancelled. I had one in-person meeting, of the Scribblers & Scribes, and two on-line meetings. March promises to be better.
  • As always, blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. Did this, though one day I remembered late in the day that I hadn’t posted anything and rushed something and posted it. Hopefully that won’t happen next month.

Okay, so what do I plan to do in March? Should I set high goals, or just what I can accomplish without a lot of effort? Since two projects are dependent on others…well, we’ll see.

  • Repeat from last month: Finish pulling my research notes for the church Centennial book together into a format and organization that will make the job of a future researcher easier. I assume someone, in 25 or 50 years, will do something similar to this at a future milestone anniversary. I want to leave my notes in a condition that will facilitate their work. This is likely to take several days or even a week of concentrated work. This task includes writing a short document (short as in 10-15 pages) “Notes for a Future Researcher”. That document, however, is most likely a task for a future month, say April, or May.
  • Continue to shepherd the church Centennial book to publication. I have minor things I can do while waiting on the cover, slight improvements to be made. Almost certainly this will go to the printer in March.
  • Continue to plug along on There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. I’ll finish going through it this last time, getting critique on two more chapters, while waiting on beta readers. I’m not sure of the timing of the cover, but should know this week.
  • Make good progress on the Last Supper Bible study. I’d like to finish three more chapters in March.
  • Begin work on a Gethsemane Bible study. Since I’ll be teaching it beginning next Sunday, I hope to make my notes this time in publishable format, being essentially done with it by the time the study ends. I think tonight I’m going to do the final “programming” of this study, figuring out the chapters, estimating length, etc.
  • Attend writers groups. I expect this will be three online and three in-person meetings. I don’t think we’ll be doing any traveling this month (though I’m not sure of that), winter weather is less likely (though not impossible), so I expect these meetings to happen this month.
  • Blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. This should be a bit easier this month. I have three blog posts that I know I’m going to write, and four book reviews to write, so I think I’m good.
  • I’ll throw in one more for good measure. For a while, I’ve wanted to revamp the “Available Works” page on my website. I made a small beginning on this in February, and would like to make significant progress on it in March.

So, there’s the goals. They are somewhat lofty, especially what I want to accomplish with the two Bible studies. I’ll check back in, probably on April 1, and let you all know how I did.

C.S. Lewis, Christianity

Verses to Start the Day

Leave a comment
Tolkien and Lewis were highly educated, deep thinkers. Those who write about them often seem to focus on this.

In this modern era, as I pick books to read, I try to have both a print book and e-book I’m working through at all times. That lets me read a print book in the sunroom, or to be an example to the grandkids, and to have something to read on my phone in those odd moments of waiting (doctor, DMV, etc.). My current print book read is The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas. I have about 100 pages to go in this 950 page book.

My current e-book read is The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings. This book focuses on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. I’m currently on page 185 of 685. I would have loved to have this book in paperback, but I really need to reduce the number of books in this house, not increase them. So to the phone I go when I want to read this book.

It’s a good book but, to some extent, it’s a little over my head. The authors, Philip and Carol Zaleski, talk about the philosophy of these men (so far mainly Tolkien and Lewis, with a little of Barfield), and how they held language so high that they almost worshiped language. Okay, the authors don’t say that, but as I read the book, it seems like that to me.

Some of what the book discusses is philosophical ideas, or “schools”, such as realism vs. idealism. What was Lewis at different time in his early life, a realist or an idealist? What moved him from one to the other?

I want to scream “Shut up!” I don’t really care about their philosophy. Tell me about their friendship, their writings, their collaboration. Tell me about their meetings and how they encouraged one another to write more and better books.

No, I’m not a deep thinker into things like realism and idealism. I just try to live life to the full, to learn as much as I can (including stretching myself), to draw closer to God. Does knowing how the debate of realism vs. idealism in C.S. Lewis’s mind helped to shape his later years do any of those for me? It might stretch me to know more about those, but I doubt they will help me to be a better Christian, to win a lost world for Jesus.

I don’t think I’m a shallow thinker, however. But my own writing and conversation are, apparently, not the stuff of Lewis and Tolkien. I’m just concerned with improving the world, beginning with my little corner and working out. Am I an idealist or a realist? Maybe I’m just a pragmatist. What is practical for helping me achieve my goals? That’s what I want to concentrate on.

And what I will concentrate on. Let others deal with the ins and outs or realism vs. idealism, and any other ism you care to bring up. I won’t be dealing with them.

No, when I think about things, I’m just trying to live in a way where each day I’m a little better than the last. Toward that end, I try to start each day with three Bible verses. I say “try” because, despite good intentions, I sometimes get up and go about my business without quoting the verses. But I say them more often than not. Here are the verses.

“I will awaken the dawn.” Psalm 57:8b

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:17

“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Luke 17:10

In future posts, I’ll discuss each of these verses: when I “discovered” them; why I chose them; what they mean to me. I won’t be doing those posts immediately, but spread out over the next month